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Posted by
AlpineSurfer
on 2008-02-18

PUBLIC:

Voyager Capital is a Series A investor in my Seattle-based internet company, and Bill McAleer is a BOD observer of the company. Overall Bill is a high-integrity individual who is very thorough, strategic and supportive. He and his firm have particular strengths in helping early stage companies focus on market segments and build product marketing strategies. Bill has deep finance and operations experience (with both large corporations like Westin and growth companies like Aldus), and is able to provide meaningful insights based on this experience. Bill has been helpful in our recruiting efforts, having made several good introductions to engineering talent in the Seattle area and in interviewing executive candidates along the way. In addition, Bill has introduced my company to other executives/entrepreneurs in the Seattle area and within the Voyager portfolio to share knowledge in key marketing strategies for internet companies (SEO, customer segmentation, etc).

In addition to Bill, I've also worked very closely with Tom Kippola who is a Voyager venture partner and a Managing Director with the Chasm Group (based in the Bay Area). Tom has helped us with segmentation, marketing strategy, and product strategy. He is a great asset to Voyager and their portfolio companies.

I've had less interaction with other Voyager partners, but during the due-diligence process of our Series A was able to work with Erik Benson, Enrique Godreau and Randall Lucas, all of whom participated and provided good insights during their assessment of our technology architecture and product development process. Randall has provided some very relevant technology/database infrastructure advice to our firm, and Erik has been supportive in our recruiting efforts as well.

Voyager moved fast to reach a decision in the fundraising process, and while they were not the "lead" investor on this deal, they proved to be quite agile in getting to the close and staying flexible in responding to our company's needs and the needs of our other shareholders/investors. They thoroughly analyzed the deal structure at each turn, and arguably were more on top of the final closing details than anyone else in the process (including our law firm). One thing I liked was their transparency in giving us feedback on the due diligence process: where they saw strengths, and where they saw potential weaknesses, with suggestions on how to fix them.

Voyager has a good mix of operations, product marketing, and technology experience at their firm and also seem to have good rapport and teamwork among the partnership. I enjoy working with them on a personal level as well. They are well connected in the Seattle community, to the WTIA, and host several "Innovation" events during the year with impressive guest speakers. They have a CEO summit that is very valuable with good speakers...and very fun (in Montana in october). They also have some good ties to Silicon Valley via Curtis and Jodi.

Voyager recently closed a new fund, and I would encourage entrepreneurs of early stage companies to "pitch" the firm.